March 4, 2021, was my day of liberation. I got my second Covid vaccination that day. While it would still be two weeks for the inoculation to reach full effect, I could finally see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. At least for me. Not for most…

“Defund the police” has become a divisive term hurled from right to left and left to right. As a rallying cry for partisans, it’s having its season. Its meaning, however, is often determined by the hurler, usually as an invective rather than part of a discussion. …

Chapter 1 -28:17:18:37 Sheila Pennington watched as dawn sunlight struck the far edge of the clearing about 400 feet away. She was drinking the last of her morning coffee as she sat in a wildlife blind on the edge of the Sanctuary’s compound. She often greeted the dawn from the…

I began my journey towards EVs when I got my first hybrid car, a 2008 Toyota Prius. I liked its fuel mileage, usually in the upper 40s and often north of 50 miles per gallon. Soon we had two of them, but the second was totaled in a crash (no…

(Beware the following is a codger’s rant.) As I age — yes, I’m old — I get the feeling that I’ve seen this show before. Just today, the New York Times had two stories that took me back decades. …

The following is an extract of my report to my financial institution about fraudulent transactions facilitated by the Square company. I’d be happy if they policed their transactions more diligently and allowed outsiders to report these incidents without becoming members. Additional Dispute Information Please provide the following information to expedite your request. Have…

[The following quotes are from email messages I have received just in the past week. My thoughts reside within the square brackets.] I’ll be honest [You mean you lie at all other times? Do you really need to announce your honesty?] Humbly asking… [Really? You’re running for the US Senate…

I teach as an adjunct faculty member at a well-known state university. At the moment, I’m only offering one course per term, so as you can imagine, I have some unstructured time to write ruminations such as this one. Today, I received an email from the university leadership that it…

We have all seen these messages. The latest for me was from Allstate Insurance. They sent me an email saying that I had a new insurance document in MyBenefits (a subsite that offers access to your policies, claims, and other information like mysterious and vaguely threatening changes to your policy)…